On Monday, 1 October 2012, the Freedom Bus made its final stop in the old city of Beit Sahour, on the outskirts of Bethlehem. An initiative of the Jenin Freedom Theater the Freedom Bus spent the last week traveling throughout the West Bank, stopping in 11 different communities to preform their self-styled Playback Theater, a mechanism through which the theater members transform and bring to life personal accounts and autobiographical stories from various members of the audience in each community. The enactments illustrate vivid accounts of the day-to-day realities of life under Israeli occupation.
The culmination of the Freedom Bus’ week long series of events came in the form of an outdoor nighttime concert with performances by the Ministry of Dub-Key (a Palestinian reggae/hip hop/debka group originally from Haifa), Toot Ard (a Palestinian indie band from the occupied Golan Heights) and the famed Palestinian rap trio, DAM.
Packed among the ancient stone buildings, in the heart of a town known for its key role in nonviolent political activism and resistance during the First and Second Intifadas, over 200 people smiled and bobbed their heads to modern day Palestinian resistance music. Smiles and good vibes were in abundance amongst the diverse crowd, which ran the gamut from West Bank and Israeli-ID holding Palestinians to internationals from across the world, from toddlers to grandfathers. It was truly a collective celebration of Palestinian cultural resistance.
For more information on the Freedom Bus, please click here.